


Paralysis

by severinne



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, M/M, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-02
Updated: 2011-03-02
Packaged: 2017-10-16 01:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/severinne/pseuds/severinne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pike lost something on the Narada that he tries to rediscover in the past, or the future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Paralysis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Draycevixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draycevixen/gifts).



> Written as the spoils of a drabble meme as per the request of Draycevixen.

This Vulcan’s eyes are softer, more open to the wealth of experiences lacking in his younger counterpart. Still, Pike hesitates to match an emotion to that weary gaze, one that has recently seen far worse travesties than his traitorous body.

‘I suppose,’ he says, in a falsely light tone that hangs like an old lead bullet shot into the vacuum of space, ‘the Christopher Pike you knew fared better than this.’

Spock bows his head, the burial of his lined face in his high collar revealing more than it conceals. ‘He did not.’

A chill cuts through Pike’s numb legs.

\+ + +

At first, Pike did not understand what pulled the time-lost echo of his former first officer to his bedside. Understanding mattered far less than the desperately needed diversion from full-body scans and pitying stares cast from a safe distance.

Ambassador Spock did not edge around the hospital room like the ghost he was; he planted the full weight of his enigma at Pike’s bedside, rich with tantalizing memories dropped like canapés onto the palate of Pike’s puzzle-starved mind.

Pike was so grateful for the stimulating conversation that he never suspected that Spock, too, found his own stimulation in these visits.

\+ + +

‘It is pleasing to see you like this,’ he continues, head lifting to take in Pike’s prone body, the regenerators and sensors and pale skin exposed beneath it all. Suffused with shame, Pike scowls.

‘Is this really better than death?’

‘I cannot say for certain. As it transpired, you never died.’

Pike represses another shiver. ‘I… don’t understand…’

‘I hope you never do.’ Spock pauses. ‘I did what seemed most logical, but…’

‘What did you do?’ he asks anxiously. ‘And why? For me?’

Spock’s silence is not enticing or enigmatic; rather, it flays Pike’s crumbling patience clean from the bone.

\+ + +

‘Damn your past,’ Pike replies harshly. ‘I only get one life, and right now it… fuck, it _hurts_.’

Logically, Spock should call a nurse, not uncurl Pike’s frustrated fist until their fingers gently align.

‘It has feeling, old friend,’ he says. ‘Feeling, your own voice…’ Spock tilts his head, withdraws his touch. ‘I will summon a nurse.’

He departs, leaving Pike shaken.

Yet when Spock’s present self arrives, smoothly young at Pike’s bedside, it is Pike who entangles his fingers with those of his visitor, savouring his confusion, his heated skin and his promise.

Pike greedily, gratefully, feels it all.


End file.
